Prologue
With her beauty and his brains they both knew they could conquer the world and achieve goals they had never even dreamt of.
Holding her hands, sitting in the coffee house he asks her “Nadea, have you ever been to Rome?”
Nadea was sitting opposite to him on the table, watching and listening to the river outside the shop hustle. She turns to him smiling and answers “No, I’ve not”. It was by far the most beautiful and serene smile he had ever seen and it was not his first time witnessing this smile. He remembers the first time he met her. It was on the streets of Russia. He was on one of his self proclaimed official tours when they both bumped into each other. Their eyes met and Nadea had apologised for not being attentive of where she was going. At that time he said it was okay after which Nadea smiled at him, the very smile he was looking at right now, and had walked away.
But he knew it was not, for Nadea had not just bumped into him but had also stolen his wallet and he was no alien to this method. He himself had used it on many of his victims before and could have easily caught her in the act and made it awkward for her but something had stopped him from doing so and sitting in this coffee house he remembers that it was definitely this smile.
Their fingers interlock and he asks her another question, “Would you like to go there?”. Nadea is sure he already knows the answer. She would never say no to traveling. For all she had ever desired was to get away from everything she knew. She was born a Russian and that’s all she knew about herself. She didn’t have a middle name or a last name. She spent her childhood jumping from one foster home to another. She remembers getting adopted once but her foster parents were very abusive and treated her like a slave. As a teenager she earned minimal wage working at a cafe as a part timer and spent rest of her time teaching herself how to pick locks and pockets.
One morning on the day of her 19th birthday she bumped into a stranger and picked his wallet. She was happy the victim did not notice and she was thinking of buying a nice pair of shoes but to her surprise all he had in his wallet was a keycard to a hotel nearby. Her morning was already off to a bad start and so she decided she would have to check the hotel room later that night.
_
–To be continued…..
